Earth observation

HyperScout-1, the first miniaturized hyperspectral imager for space, successfully demonstrated that it is possible to process the images that are gathered by a satellite on board. By knowing the position of the satellite and in which direction it points, the instrument knows what it is looking at and can interpret the data, thus eliminating the need to download the data.

In an announcement made to the British Parliament on 18 December 2018, UK Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson announced that a wide-ranging review of defence policy and capabilities that aims to prepare British armed forces for 21st Century warfare with peer powers is about to be concluded

ICEYE, the Finnish Earth observation company attempting to create the world’s largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, announced on 14 December 2018 that it has received a €10 million capital loan

Axelspace has announced that the launch of the GRUS-1 satellite is scheduled for 27 December 2018, the first satellite of a future constellation.

The rapid growth of people migrating to cities to live, study or work is set to continue. According to the United Nations, more than half of today’s 7.5 billion world population live in cities. By 2050, about 70% of the world’s 9.8 billion population will settle in urban areas.

The President of the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French national space agency, spoke with Chinese counterparts on 10 December 2018 about Sino-French cooperation in space-based climate change monitoring, oceanography, environmental monitoring, space exploration, and space science.

On Tuesday, 18 December 2018, and Arianespace Soyuz launch vehicle will lift off for the 20th time from Europe’s spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre (GSC), carrying the CSO-1 security and defence Earth-observation satellite for the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) and the French defence procurement agency DGA.

Spire Global, Inc, the world's largest space to cloud analytics company, has announced Spire's most recently launched satellites are the first satellites in the world to use Galileo GNSS signals to measure radio occultation (GNSS-RO) profiles in a production capacity for the weather community.

South Korea and the United States have agreed to share data from their respective geostationary environmental pollution-monitoring satellites as part of a growing global effort to monitor the Earth's climate and pollution emissions.

ICEYE, the Finnish Earth observation company attempting to create the world’s largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, has published its first radar image from the ICEYE-X2 satellite, launched on Spaceflight’s historic SSO-A mission two weeks ago.